A former South Korean intelligence chief sparked controversy last week with remarks that the leaders of the two Koreas operated a hotline for years until 2008.

Kim Man-bok, who served as director of the National Intelligence Service under the late President Roh Moo-hyun, said the hotline was set up during the administration of President Kim Dae-jung, Roh’s predecessor, and maintained into the Roh presidency. But he said the secret highest-level communication channel was severed after Lee Myung-bak was sworn in as president in February 2008.

In an interview with a local daily Thursday, Kim suggested Roh had held phone talks with then-North Korean leader Kim Jong-il on a regular basis through the hotline. Admitting he was revealing “classified information,” he said the hotline operated 24 hours a day, and every time the phone on the South Korean side rang, it was from the North Korean ruler. His revelation marked the first time that a former government official had disclosed the presence of the secret communication channel between the leaders of the two Koreas.

The former NIS chief said the secret channel was instrumental in arranging the second inter-Korean summit between Roh and Kim in October 2007. He expressed regret over the severance of the hotline by the Lee administration. But his revelation might well raise the criticism the hotline was useless in preventing the North from conducting its first nuclear test in October 2006 when Roh was in office.

This might be the reason he changed his tone a day later, saying that the two leaders had never held phone talks as far as he knew.

Regardless of his verbal gymnastics, the former intelligence chief apparently violated the law that prohibits former and incumbent NIS staff from leaking classified information they came to know on duty after leaving the agency.

He has a long track record of disclosing classified information or intentionally exaggerating facts to support his personal interests.

Kim circulated the text of dialogue he held with a North Korean official in December 2007 among figures outside his agency. Noting the document included his remarks in favor of then opposition presidential candidate Lee, critics said he might have leaked the file in an attempt to keep his job after a change of government.

While serving as intelligence chief, Kim also raised eyebrows by listing his phone number on the homepage of his middle school alumni group and holding a news conference on the site of negotiations on releasing South Koreans held hostage in Afghanistan. He barely escaped legal punishment when he mentioned what had been discussed at the 2007 inter-Korean summit in his contribution to a Japanese magazine in 2011.

It is said that Kim is trying to draw public attention again ahead of next April’s parliamentary elections, as he prepares to run in a constituency in Busan. Leaking secrets related to national security for personal and political reasons is simply unacceptable and intolerable. This kind of act undermines public trust in the political neutrality of the intelligence agency.

A figure like Kim with a loose tongue and a self-promoting tendency should not have been assigned to the top intelligence post. An investigation should be undertaken to determine all the facts regarding his latest controversial remarks and make him subject to legal punishment if he is confirmed to have broken the law.